Advancing the Christian Fascist Agenda:
Sessions’ Speech to Powerful anti-LGBTQ Hate Group

July 24, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On July 11, Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave a closed-door speech to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the largest and most powerful Christian fascist law firm you’ve never heard of. In their own words, ADF’s reactionary legal agenda is fighting against the “concocted” “constitutional ‘right’ to abortion”; the “myth” of the “separation of church and state”; and laws that promote “social approval of homosexual behavior.” For the last 20 years they have been involved in the most prominent legal cases attacking reproductive choice, spreading anti-LGBTQ laws in this country and internationally, and overall imposing religion on more and more realms of public life. (See sidebar.)

The ADF is not simply or mainly the product of a grassroots movement of religious fundamentalist bigots who hate and fear LGBTQ people. It has major financial backing from billionaires, like Richard and Helen DeVos (whose daughter-in-law, Betsy DeVos, is secretary of education) and other big-time capitalists. Most fundamentally, it is an agent of the agenda of sections of the ruling class who see an absolute need to re-cohere U.S. society under draconian Christian fundamentalist norms and morality, including demonization and dehumanization of LGBTQ people. These forces now have their people in the White House.

Discriminating against LGBTQ people = Christian fascists practicing their faith

Sessions opened his speech by praising ADF for the “important work” it does “to uphold and protect the right to religious liberty in this country.” He gave backing to the Christian fascists’ victimhood bullshit: “Many Americans have felt that their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack. This feeling is understandable.” Sessions wasn’t referring to the actual escalating terrorist attacks against Muslims, or his regime’s shutting down and infiltrating their places of worship, or the ban aimed at keeping people of the Muslim faith out of the country. What he was doing was giving support to ADF’s claim that prohibiting them from discriminating against LGBTQ people violates their god-given right to religious bigotry. This is akin to the logic of those who argued that fair housing laws violated the “sincere beliefs” of people who didn’t want to live near Black people.

Sessions then went on to promise the Alliance Defending Freedom they would have the backing of the Justice Department to impose their Christian fascist ideology on state and federal laws, and on every aspect of public life:

In all of this litigation and debate, this Department of Justice will never allow this secular government of ours to demand that sincere religious beliefs be abandoned. We will not require American citizens to give intellectual assent to doctrines that are contrary to their religious beliefs. And they must be allowed to exercise those beliefs as the First Amendment guarantees. We will defend freedom of conscience resolutely. That is inalienable. That is our heritage.

The essence of the logic of Sessions’ statement is that religious beliefs must take precedence over demands for equality and civil rights. Here Sessions’ language practically repeats ADF’s talking points in the upcoming case in Colorado where a baker was sued for refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.

Trump orders DOJ to write guidance on how to assist the Christian fascist agenda

Sessions also promised the DOJ was going to put its position in writing, saying “The president has also directed me to issue guidance on how to apply federal religious liberty protections.... The federal government will actively find ways to accommodate people of all faiths. The protections enshrined in the Constitution and our laws protect all Americans, including when we work together, speak in the public square, and when we interact with our government. We don’t waive our constitutional rights when we participate fully in public life and civic society.” (emphasis ours)

What Sessions is saying is that the Department of Justice intends to do all it can to clear the path for Christian fascists to impose their religious bigotry and their goal of a Christian fascist America on every sphere of public life. The speech Sessions gave to this “Summit” of Christian fascist lawyers represents a statement by the Trump/Pence regime that it intends to help advance not only their vicious anti-LGBTQ agenda, but their overall goal of a Christian fascist America.

Where did this Christian fascist movement come from?

For decades, the capitalist-imperialists in the USA have confronted very sharp contradictions: bogged down in wars and occupations, contention with other major powers, and in battle with outmoded Islamic jihadism internationally; while in this country the oppression of Black, Latino, and other oppressed nationality people, immigrants, and women intensifies, and there is the straining of the traditional social fabric holding this society together. In this context, a Christian fascist movement has been developing, backed by a major section of the U.S. ruling class, aiming for nothing less than a Christian theocratic society ruled by biblical law and morality.

As Bob Avakian (BA) has analyzed extensively in The Truth About Right-Wing Conspiracy... And Why Clinton and the Democrats Are No Answer and other works, fascism in America is a result of larger dynamics at this moment in history. He has scientifically analyzed the rise of this fascism, its underlying causes and drivers, and peculiarly American expressions such as Christian fascism—and what is to be done for the emancipation of humanity—and we strongly encourage readers to study these works. In The Truth About Right-Wing Conspiracy..., BA pointed out:

[These Christian fascists are] political leaders and forces who insist that “traditional morality,” as embodied in the patriarchal family as well as “right or wrong” patriotism—and rationalized in terms of fundamentalist Christianity—must be the basis for maintaining the cohesion and solidity of American capitalist society and the dominant position of imperial America in the world arena. In the vision these people profess, contemporary America—not just the government but the society as a whole—is in cultural and moral decline. More, it is in danger of disintegration and destruction.

The election of the Trump/Pence regime has brought this movement to power. Trump himself has fully united with the Christian fascists, beginning with Mike Pence, and with those who make up a large part of the cabinet. And with this control of the executive, Congress and major state governments--and with control of the Supreme Court an appointment or two away--the obstacles are being swept aside for the advance of the Christian fascist agenda to become the “law of the land”—enforced with all the violence at the hands of the U.S. state. The urgency cannot be exaggerated of mobilizing millions, and tens of millions, who hate the crimes being carried out by this regime more and more each day, to act on the understanding that this regime is fascist, to stand up together and stop them.

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